This invention pertains to an apparatus to be affixed either temporarily or permanently to a dock for receipt of a ship""s electrical cable, water line, and other lines such that dock side power, television, and water sources among others can be accessed while the cables and lines are neatly retained during periods of connection to the sources of electricity, water and the T.V. cable.
When a boat moors at a dock, for an extended period of time, it does so often not just to reload provisions, such as foodstuffs, containerized beverages, and naval stores, but also to obtain fresh water, and fuel the tank. Today""s boat lovers have luxuries on board not available in yesteryear. Mention may be made of electricity, cable television, water and telephones not associated with ship to shore radio. When a boat is moored, the cables pertaining to the provision of cable TV, electrical power, and the hoses or lines for water or phone are all attached to a dockside vessel support system to continue the delivery of these utilities to the vessel. Other utilities that employ either an electrical cable or a flexible hose, may be employed for the delivery of other ship needed items as well.
Normally these lines and cables are retained on shipboard in a coiled up fashion. No doubt the reader has seen rope coiled up on a ship""s deck waiting to be thrown to a person who might fall overboard, or a downed water skier. The cables are kept coiled in like manner.
Should the cables and hoses be left un-retained in a neat fashion, one or more of them could fall into the water, and perhaps cause an outage, or at least corrosion of the line which could interfere with satisfactory delivery of the TV or phone signal or of power for use on shipboard. As an alternative, injury could take place to passers-by walking near or even on cables and lines that may be laying around haphazard on the dock.
When these cables and/or hoses (lines) are handed over in some fashion to docking personnel, if the cables and lines are left on their own, they can become tangled up and sometimes one or more of them can fall in the water, often creating a retrieval problem. On the other hand, if the cables and lines are merely piled on the dock helter-skelter, there is always the possibility of injury to passers-by, which could create a liability problem for the shipowner.
While apparatuses for the stowage and support of cables and lines are known to the art none are portable such that they can be moved from location to location as the ship travels the seven seas.
Thus reference can be made to the following U.S. patents which turned up during the course of a search:
None of the above mentioned patents either alone or in combination discloses the invention set forth herein and which is the subject matter of the appended claims.
The invention accordingly comprises the device possessing the features properties and the relation of components which are exemplified in the following detailed disclosure and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claims.